I'm so tired!
by hobnob444
Summary: Bruce and Natasha bump into each other during one of many sleepless nights after Infinity War. My first time writing...well, anything!
1. Chapter 1

AN: I've never written anything, ever, so I'm hoping to get some reviews.

All of the characters belong to Marvel and MCU

Natasha opened her eyes and sighed. No chance of sleep again tonight, so why pretend? She got up but decided against getting dressed. _No one to see me walking around in my PJs anyways_, she thought. She left her little apartment unit in the new Avengers facility and randomly picked a direction. After wandering aimlessly, she stopped at a bank of windows and stared out into the night. Dawn was hours away and Natasha wondered what she could do to make the time go by a little faster.

The former assassin sat and thought about when the facility had been full to capacity, back before Thanos. There had been so many people living here full time that even at 3am in the residential wings, you could hear faint sounds of people talking and moving about. Now…so many Avengers gone. So many of _everyone._ Of course, they had lost lots of staff to the dissolving. Some of the remaining staff left to find family and try to start over. A few had brought their remaining family here, figuring if anywhere was safe now, it would be the Avengers Facility. The few children they now had living here went a long way to filling the place with noise during the day, but at night? It might as well be abandoned.

_I miss the days when we were all at Avengers Tower together,_ Natasha thinks. Although it didn't seem so at the time, how small their problems were then. Hydra bases? What fun! The camaraderie between the team members was the best it's ever been. And Bruce working with them in the field. Bruce… Natasha is quick to turn that thought away. In the 6 months since Thanos snapped his fingers and changed everything, all the Avengers have done is grieve and work to preserve civilization from the inevitable looters and power-grabbers. All of the heroes have jobs, and they come together periodically for a meal or to talk about progress on certain projects, but they all seem caught up in their own thoughts most of the time. Everyone has trouble sleeping, and everyone has been isolating themselves.

She and Bruce Banner never got around to talking about their – well, relationship, if you could call it that. Nat wishes she could figure out a way to apologize for taking away Bruce's choice by pushing him into that pit. No wonder he left. It just seemed a petty and unimportant waste of time talking about feelings when half of the people in the universe were gone. At least, that's how she felt. Maybe Bruce felt the same, or maybe he just felt awkward like always to start an intimate conversation. _God I love when he gets all dorky and uncomfortable, _she starts to think with a smile. Before she can finish the thought, she scowls and says "Enough!" to the empty hallway. _Can't think about that now. _Maybe she needs some tea. Or vodka. Either way, her steps turn toward the kitchen.

The kitchen on this floor is mostly dark, with a few dim safety lights providing a little illumination. Enough light for Natasha to move around by, considering she ends up in the kitchen at least 3 nights a week. The other winners for nighttime rambles are the gym and the roof. She opens a cabinet and stares at a selection of teas. "I'm so fucking tired" she says to the tea. "You can't sleep either?" a voice says from the floor on the far side of the room. Feeling pissed that she didn't even notice a presence, Natasha looks over and sees Bruce sitting on the floor, back to the wall. Her heart jumps for a moment, but then she notices how exhausted and sad he looks. _We're all suffering right now, _she remembers, and walks over to him.

Bruce looks up, wishing he hadn't said anything. Maybe she would have gotten what she came for and left without ever noticing him there. In the past few months he has wanted so badly to offer some words of comfort to her, even a hug, but his self-loathing is worse than ever after his inability to help as the Hulk against Thanos. _All she knows is I was gone for 2 years and then I came back and let the team down,_ he thinks, his facing grimacing in frustration as she walks over. _All I know is I miss her and I still want what we had back. Whatever it was._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything about these characters, Marvel, or MCU**

**AN: Thanks for the views and the review I got. Please review, as I am really new to writing. I am also really new to Marvel and MCU. So hopefully I am getting the characters down well. I hope to get at least 5 chapters to this story, so here is the next one!**

Natasha stares down at Bruce for a moment. She has the impulse to leave, but suddenly she is overwhelmed by the memory of how well they comforted each other during bad times. Sometimes they would talk for hours, but they could also sit in easy silence. They each used to seek the other out when stressed. Suddenly Natasha finds herself turning around and sliding down the wall to end up sitting right next to Bruce. He looks over at her, startled, then sighs and says, "How did we get here?" He can't think of anything else to say. He's a little overwhelmed by her proximity, and really doesn't want to say anything that might ruin this moment.

Keeping her eyes in front of her, Natasha says, "I really don't know. Things seem to have been going from bad to worse since…since Ultron, really." There's a minute of silence and then she adds, "since you went away." His mind is reeling. What is she saying? That she missed him? That she blames him? What should he say right now to not piss her off? "Natasha," he starts. "No," she says, cutting him off, "just let me, I want to, I'm so sorry I pushed you. I should have tried to persuade you. There was just no time. I went with the quickest solution, but…it took so long for us to trust each other, and I know we'll probably never have that again."

Bruce sits there, stunned. _She's apologizing to me?_ "Nat, I, I know why you did it. Uh, pushed me. And it probably saved a lot of lives, so how could I blame you?" He risks another glance in her direction. "I still trust you. Completely." Natasha lets out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. _He's not angry with me!_ A silence settles over them. _There it is, _she thought, that comfortable quiet that wasn't awkward at all. After a couple of minutes, she gently lays her head on his shoulder, smiling when she feels him rest his head on hers. _How can he always make everything just better?_

Bruce cannot believe how easy it has been to fall back into the companionship they enjoyed last year. _Years, _he corrects himself. _It's been years. You were gone 2 years, Banner, not 3 weeks. _"Nat, I hope you know I didn't w-want to be gone for 2 years. I wouldn't have left without any word for 2 years. I was stuck inside the other guy the whole time. I'm so sorry…" "Thor told me about it, Bruce. You don't need to explain," she answers, relishing every little stammer that made him so endearing. _Of course, he was worried about her and not himself._

"Did he tell you that you were the first thing I asked about after the other guy let me go? You were what got me out, did he tell you that?" Natasha smiles and says "No, tell me about it," even though she had heard the story from the Asgardian. Bruce talks for a while about his time on Sakaar, and then she tells him about the Civil War and everything else that had happened with the Avengers here on Earth. As they talk, Natasha feels fatigue begin to tug her eyelids down. It's a pleasant feeling, one she hasn't enjoyed in months. It gives her an idea, so she stands up and holds her hand out to him.

"C'mon," she says. "W-where are we going?" he asks. "I don't really want to be alone tonight, do you?" Bruce shakes his head, a little scared to know where this is heading. It's feels so good to just _be_ with her, but he's not sure he's prepared for things to move anywhere else yet. They just started talking again.

"Well," Natasha answers, "maybe we would both be able to sleep if we weren't alone. It's worth a shot, right?" He stares at her hand before deciding, "Absolutely." She pulls him up and takes off down the hallway, still holding his hand. As she leads him to the apartment she's been staying in, Natasha hopes he hasn't gotten the wrong idea. Although she is definitely interested in whatever they can have as a relationship, she does really just want to sleep. She chuckles and thinks, _even if he got the wrong idea, he's too much a gentleman to act on it. He's probably freaking out wondering what I'm intending._

Bruce was, in fact, freaking out just a bit.


End file.
